kiwixora

 

This weekend has been by far the most fulfilling, productive and enlightening weekend in a long time. 

Spent it on the Standard First Aid course conducted by the Red Cross Training Centre on Sat and Sun, 9am to 6pm.

For those who're wondering, I volunteered to be the medic for the Venture Yunnan team because I wanted to take the First Aid course.

Anyway, over 2 days, I learnt a lot about the anatomy of the human body, different types of injuries and how to treat them eg. CPR. Extremely interesting and inspiring. Next Sunday will be the last day of the course. 3 days and I get the First Aid license (provided that I pass the Theory & Practical exams of course).

I feel a lil bit empowered by the knowledge that I can help, yet I'm also frustrated that my hands are tied. There's only so much I learnt and so much I can help. I want to take more courses in First Aid!

Anyway, the leaders of the VY team also have to know First Aid, hence 2 of them (both guys) are attending the course with me. One of them was super bored in class and hardly took down any notes.

Why? He was a combat medic in the NS.

I looked through his notebook of what he learnt in NS and mygosh, he learnt AMAZINGLY A LOT. So while me and the other guy have to consciouly remember the many steps of a procedure, combat-medic guy had to consciously forget steps (he learnt at least 3 times more steps than us). He can just carry out entire procedures or rattle them off the tongue without even purposeful recalling of textbook info because they're so ingrained in him. So in fact he didn't have to take the course. Just that his license had already expired. So no choice.

I was really awed. Guy friends mostly just told me that NS is brainless (just listen to Sir!) but good for bonding. I didn't know anything else. Like I was totally clueless about medics, but now that I know a bit more, I think they're one of the rare groups of NSFs who still get intellectual stimulation in NS, and a lot of it. From what my friend said, they had to constantly study because there would be a test every 3 months.

Due to my ignorance, I went to brush up my info of NS. Checked out the various NS websites, watched lotsa videos, basically trying to find out what NS is all about. I was most impacted by videos which showed the training and life of an NSF. Gruelling is really an understatement. Especially the training for the elite forces eg. Officer Cadats and the extremely elite squad of Naval Divers. Having already factored in the videos may be well-packaged and well-acted to portray a positive image of NS, I can still sense the teamwork, the camaraderie, the grit-teeth-and-perservere spirit even from the videos, what's more the first-hand experiences for the NS boys?

I was so inspired that (can you believe it?!) the thought of signing on for NS crossed my mind. Do you know both guys and girls are conscripted in Israel? That means both guys and girls have to do mandatory national service.

But the physical training would just kill me, I confim cannot tahan. But then again, I felt really bad that I was so blissfully ignorant about NS all along, thinking it's just a rite of passage for the boys, holding a really apathetic attitude towards NS - that it doesn't affect me so I don't have to know or care about it.

Now I know.
And I acknowledge.
And I'm really proud of all the NS boys in our midst.

I reached home at 6+ today and till 11 pm, had zero work done. MAJOR PANIC. So now I'm sacrificing my sleep to do work.

Mind KNOWS that I have three 1500-word essays due next Mon (5 more days left & I haven't even started) but body ACTS like I'm on holiday. Why is there this dichotomy!!?? Maybe some chiding from friends would jolt me out of this state of inaction.

God created the world in the 1st 6 days and rested on the 7th. But I seem to always be resting for 6 days then craming everything on the last day.

BOY OH BOY

Procrastination ought to be made the 8th sin. X(

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond
year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z”, and “w” with “v”.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tuunderstand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German lik zey vunted in ze forst plas.

(Tiff & Co Return To Tiffany heart-tag charm, Coach ali signature slim envelope wallet, BANC pullover)
(credits to tiffany.com, coach.com, bancshop.com)

These are specific items which I would love to own (instead of general things like the salmon pink blazer which I mentioned 2 posts ago). I had my eye on them since a pretty long time ago. The other day I saw a woman carrying a Coach bag in the same colour and print and I kept staring (how rude of me XP). I love Coach, and thankfully their items are not as oversubscribed as some of the other big names like LV. I used to like Guess, but their bags and wallets are heavy (not very ergonomic) and the designs of late have become really tacky. I still like Guess watches though, and I'm sourcing for a new watch. As for Tiff & Co, I'm sure everyone has seen a Tiff & Co advert on the front page of the Straits Times right? Their designs are seriously to-die-for, makes me want to own everything they have. I'm so gonna get one of their keys for my 21st. =)

But the above items are out of my league, unless I splurge, but currently I need to save up for exchange in Europe.

My US history lecturer said that a consumer society (where people consume wants and not just needs) is one of the measures of a modern society --> JUSTIFICATION FOR SPLURGING!! XD XD

Anyway, I'd like to think the wallet and pullover are needs, not wants. =)

Sidetracking, now that US history has piqued my interest for US, I'm starting to think about exchange in US instead of Europe. Starting to find Europe just that lil bit archaic. Fickle me. =P
 

I don't really appreciate flowers so when a friend gave me a stalk of rose recently, I didn't know what to do with it. Moreover, that day was a long day, so the poor flower was crushed by the cruel pencil-case, umbrella, organizer and others in my bag. When I reached home, most of the petals had already fallen off. =P

So as usual, I gathered the petals and left them to dry. In the past, whenever I received flowers, I always keep the petals and try to think of possible uses for the dried petals, but always don't know what to do with them so in the end I'd throw them away. Repeated cycles of keeping, thinking, then reluctantly throwing. Except that this time, it wasn't another wasted effort in drying the petals and thinking of possible uses.

I thought of something brilliant - potpurri! Ok, I'm exaggerating about the brilliance of the idea. But I'm certainly quite excited about my small achievement. I don't know what gave me the idea but I like to think it's something to do with the aesthetic sensibilities of the early Japanese in one of my modules.

Racked my mind to think of where to find netted bags in my house, then remembered that many valentine days ago, I had these chocolates individually wrapped in organza-like squares of paper.

So I plucked off the remaining few petals from the flower and placed the whole lot on the organza. I wanted to use all parts of the flower (sadly there weren't any leaves) as possible to create my potpurri, so I snipped off the bud as well. In fact, the bud had the strongest rose smell. Wrapped them up and tied them up with a ribbon. Voilà! I got my potpurri! =D

It actually works! The rose smell can diffuse through the organza.

It's not a typical potpurri bag full of different kinds of flowers and leaves, it's just a potpurri satchet filled with 1 rose, but nevertheless, making it gave me a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment. Read before that humans normally only use 5% of our brain capabilities but today, I felt like I'd used 10%. XD

I get distracted by the slightest things. X(

Stopped by Bedok Library yesterday intending to pick up ONE book for my History of Pre-modern Japan module. Some interesting books caught my eye and in the end I borrowed FOUR books, not totally relevant to school. Like the book Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne. Also wanted to borrow 747 things to do on a plane. They have the randomest stuff like "you can think of how to get rid of the 7 sins in your life". Haha I thought it'll be a light-hearted read, a good laugh, and some of the things may even come in useful when I fly to China in December!

On to another topic, I wanna go shopping! Have been lemming for:

( Billowy black pants + Salmon pink blazer + Navy striped tanktop )

For some strange reason I was searching panda babies on youtube and I came across this:

I haven't blogged for too long, so here goes.

1. 4 mid-terms next week, who else is as unfortunate to have 4 mid-terms before mid-sem break? I'm not gonna mope about it though, because that means I get to enjoy the one-week break! =D Think I'm gonna catch up on movies.

2. 命中注定我爱你!!!! Yes I know it's abit passe.. (It aired in Taiwan from March to August 2008) NEVERTHELESS, I can't believe I'm this obsessed over a Taiwanese drama. When it first showed on Channel U, I only caught it now and then as I thought it was too OTT at some parts. But even my dad was hooked (unbelievable!). I teased him about it then. And now it's his turn to laugh at me cos I claimed I wouldn't be addicted since what's-so-nice-about-it?

3. Anyway, the show has all the elements for success - refreshing plot which moved away from the cookie-cutter Taiwanese romance-comedies of old, confronting social taboos like one-night stands, abortion etc; a very talented cast (I didn't like Chen Qiao En before and this show changed my image of her); manymanymany NGs and Behind-the-scenes taken and shown to the viewers (don't think I've ever seen a drama with that many); balanced amount of romance, comedy and tragedy; etc.

4. I like the show so much that besides rewatching it, I've watched countless (I think like 100+ so far?) peirpheral videos like their interviews, MVs etc on everyone's favourite yooutuuube. OOPS, what happened to my 4 mid-terms next week right? =S

5. 2 of the songs are on loop in my mp3 now. 我的快乐 and 半情歌. Neglecting the other songs haha. These 2 are gonna be on loop until I get sick of them.

6. Someone played a really nice rendition of 我的快乐 on the piano.  Though I prefer 半情歌.

7. Which makes me reallyreallyreallyreallyreally wanna learn to play the piano now. Pris can teach me! XD

8. I really admire people who can play the piano/violin well. Seems like he thinks that way too. Maybe this sudden urge of wanting to learn is due to that reason. My mom would say 我的心机很重. (which essentially means I'm scheming). I protest. I've always wanted to learn to play the piano. (and more recently the violin, but violin's harder). So I think that him as a factor is only the final push towards actually acting on something which I've already wanted before I knew him.

9. I want an ipod. But need to start saving if I'm going for exchange. Europe is expensive. x_x

10. I think I use too many 'really's.


Someone put in alot of effort to create this fanvid, I'm impressed:




Here's the awesome piano rendition of 我的快乐:




The original (sounds very different from the piano version doesn't it?):

 


And here's 半情歌 (too bad I can't find good piano versions):

I'm back from USP FOC! More about that later, after I get the photos.

Anyway, my dream car has always been a VW Beetle. A lime green one to be exact. But I haven't seen a lime green one in Singapore for goodness knows how long. Maybe the company took it out of production. My love has kinda shifted to the sunshine-y yellow one now.

Then I saw THIS on ohsofickle:
 
I'M COMPLETELY SOLD. So PREEETTTTYYYY!!! My heart just melted. And I've just decided that I like the Beetle Cabriolet more than the Beetle. <3 <3 <3 (click the entry to view full-sized pic as I'm too lazy to LJ-cut and don't wanna resize it because the impact of its prettiness would be lost. XD)

 
Older version of the Beetle. Don't like this shade of pink on cars but the <3-shaped window is damn cute!!

 

I am rediscovering my love for pink. X)